Viral
by claudiapriscus
Summary: There are some strange things floating around the internet. Outside POV.


A/N: This was my first idea for the Reverse Bang prompt I was given, but I scrapped it and wrote Canaan instead. This was intended as the prologue for the original story.

* * *

Susan tapped industriously at her keyboard, but her eyes were on her supervisor. When the woman finished her circuit around the mostly-empty cubicles and left, Susan relaxed and left off her typing. She rolled her chair away from her desk and leaned back, craning her head around the cubicle wall.

"Hey, did you see that link I sent you?"

"Oh, God, not another one." George didn't look around. He was still tapping away diligently, like the giant dork he was.

"Oh, c'mon. It's the real deal."

"Yeah, sure. Like the last hundred. Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you, I'm not interested in your whole believe it or not schtick?"

"Come on, Georgie," she said. "Just look. You'll like this one."

"Fine. You're going to get fired if you don't stop screwing around on the internet." He pushed away from his keyboard in a forceful and unnecessarily dramatic gesture. He turned his head around and gave her a hard look. "If this is another damn UFO sighting, you're bringing me coffee for a week."

Susan shrugged. "Just open it already."

He gave a long suffering sigh, like her teenage sister whenever she was asked to smile for a family photo. He dug out her email and clicked the link. She couldn't quite see his screen, but she could tell when he saw it- his affected disinterest evaporated.

He leaned in closer to the screen for a second, then said, "Huh. Okay, you win."

"_See_? And to think you didn't trust me," she said.

"Alright, I give in. What's the deal with this one?" He rolled his chair back a little, and turned his head to regard the photo from a new angle.

"So I guess it was posted by some lab tech at some hospital back East somewhere-"

"And where he'd get it?" George interrupts.

"From a patient, where else? And why do you always think it's a guy? And in any case, who cares?"

George scooted his chair back and spun around until he could face her.

"I just think it's unlikely, that's all. It's like, seven kinds of illegal." Susan crossed her arms, clearly accusing him of being a kill-joy. He put his hands up in a defensive position, then shrugged apologetically. "So this lab monkey-" he started.

"Radiologist," she corrected.

"It was probably really the janitor," he said, unable to help himself.

Susan rolled her eyes. "Look- it says radiologist, OK?"

"Yeah, so? It's on the internet. It's almost certainly a lie. And anyway- it's always the janitor. It's like the new butler." He flicks at a pencil on his desk, sending it rolling off the edge.

"Alright, fine. A_ hospital worker of your choice_ found some unusual x-rays and uploaded them-"

"-As one does," he finished sarcastically.

Susan flicked a hand dismissively. "Oh, like you wouldn't. Any anyway, he-or-she just wanted to see if anyone had ever seen anything like it before."

"Oh really." He drawled it, and leaned back in his chair.

"Well, _yes, _if you'd let me finish anything-"

"Fine, tell it." he challenged.

"I'm _trying_." She gestured expansively. She always did. He sometimes wondered if were someone to cuff her if she'd be able to talk at all. She punctuated her words with gestures, like she was stacking words in a tower.

"So anyway," she says, glaring at George, " supposedly this guy came in for an x-ray. But it was real hush-hush, like, he wasn't a patient or anything-"

George crossed his arms. "And your mystery 'radiologist' of course has no problem admitting to wasting hospital resources-"

"Shut up," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear in a small and irritated movement. "It was all anonymous anyway."

"Of _course_. Now I really believe it."

Susan made a little disgusted noise in the back of her throat. "Why do you always have to be such a smart ass?"

George shrugged. "It's a gift."

She rolled her eyes again. "Anyway, for _whatever reason_, they take the x-rays. And the tech goes off to develop them, but comes back empty handed, makes up an excuse about bad film, and takes the x-ray again. What he hadn't told the patient, of course, is that the first one was totally, certifiably, nuts. But the second one has the same result, so he shows it to the patient. Who isn't shocked at all, and just- leaves."

"Leaving your mystery hospital worker with the original." He glanced back at the monitor.

"Yeah. Who is just kind of a little mind-fucked by the whole thing. I mean, it's obviously man-made-"

"No aliens this time?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"You're not nearly as funny as you think you are," Susan said. "But anyway, here's the thing: It's not medically possible."

"Oh, and you know that how?"

"Hey, a hundred internet commenters can't be wrong-"

"Actually-"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, come on. Just go with it."

"Fine." He made a mocking show of respect. "What do your venerable and learned internet commenters say?"

"They make some good points, Mr. Smart-ass. Like, carving all that crap into a guys ribs? You might be able to do it post-mortem, but you know, that'd show signs. You'd have to crack the guy open, either way. And even then, there's too much...stuff in the way to be able to do it that cleanly, at least I'd think so. And I don't know, but I mean, if you crack your ribs they heal, so why not this?"

"Alright, from a non-expert point of view, I concede that it sounds like that might make sense."

"I'm so glad," she said, deadpan.

He looked thoughtful for a second. "Some sort of hoax then."

"Yeah, but how?" She drummed her fingers on the corner of her desk.

"Magnets?"

"Attached to what?"

"I was kidding. But you know, I bet the guy was a radiologist, too."

She grinned triumphantly. "Ahah, so you do think it's real."

"No- well, maybe." He frowned. "I mean, assuming your mystery person isn't full of shit and wasn't just screwing around in the lab one day. But I bet if you like, were an expert at it, you would know how to fool the machine. X-rays are just funky cameras, aren't they? Maybe it's, you know, trick photography."

"Trick photography?" She didn't sound convinced.

"Sure, why not?"

Susan shrugged. "Know any radiologists?"

"Not really," he said. Whatshername, his sister-in-law's best friend, was a doctor. That's the best he could do.

"Guess we'll never know then," Susan sighed.

George shrugged. Whatshername- Pam? he thought it was Pam- was an oncologist or something like that. But he doubted he'd remember to ask the next time he saw her at his brother's annual holiday party.

"Guess not. Hey, did you see-" George trailed off at the sound of footsteps echoing down the hall. As one, they scooted back up to their computers and tried to look busy. George tabbed away from the open browser and lost himself for a while in the monotony of data entry.

The strange x-rays remained forgotten until he got ready to go for lunch. He ended up staring at the photo longer than he intended. There was something...mesmerizing about it.

He glanced at the wall he shared with Susan, and opened his email back up.

To: Eddie Miller (), Judy Miller ()

Subject: Have you seen this crazy thing?

Hey,

A coworker sent this to me. It's pretty trippy- even for a hoax. Check it out.

Judy- send this on to Pam, won't you? I'm interested to hear if she's seen it before, and if so, if she's got any idea how they pulled it off? (Trust me, you'll understand when you see it.)

- George

* * *

TBC. (Possibly).


End file.
